Student Experiences at Western Governors University (WGU)

NOLAJ

Nobylspoon wrote: »

I just finished that one as well(CLC1). The whole time I was taking the test, I felt that I had studied the wrong book, lol.

So far I have earned 8 CUs in my first 26 days at WGU.

Nice, my mentor is holding me up. I could've taken the WFV1 in the beginning, but it seems like I have to talk him into approving assessments and opening courses. I respect the fact that he doesn't want people to get ahead of themselves, but with all due respect these courses in the beginning are elementary. I just wish he would get out of my way and let me knock these things out. The INC1 I will admit is just so B R O A D from the universe to biology, but I scored an 84 on the pre-assessment, and the cut score is a 58. I don't want to be a di*k with him, but he has to uncuff me at least a little bit.

Anyways, back to studying.

Hypntick

NOLAJ wrote: »

Nice, my mentor is holding me up. I could've taken the WFV1 in the beginning, but it seems like I have to talk him into approving assessments and opening courses. I respect the fact that he doesn't want people to get ahead of themselves, but with all due respect these courses in the beginning are elementary. I just wish he would get out of my way and let me knock these things out. The INC1 I will admit is just so B R O A D from the universe to biology, but I scored an 84 on the pre-assessment, and the cut score is a 58. I don't want to be a di*k with him, but he has to uncuff me at least a little bit.

Anyways, back to studying.

Remember one very important fact about this whole process. You're paying them to provide this service. Your mentor not up to speed? Mention it to him, if this doesn't work, contact student services. They will rectify your issue one way or the other. Some mentors require a little nudge in the right direction first.

On an unrelated note, submitted LAE1 just now, now i'm free to study MGC1 for Saturday.

Edit 8:20 am: Got my LAE1 score from taskstream. Another down, just requested LET1.

Nobylspoon

NOLAJ wrote: »

Nice, my mentor is holding me up. I could've taken the WFV1 in the beginning, but it seems like I have to talk him into approving assessments and opening courses. I respect the fact that he doesn't want people to get ahead of themselves, but with all due respect these courses in the beginning are elementary. I just wish he would get out of my way and let me knock these things out. The INC1 I will admit is just so B R O A D from the universe to biology, but I scored an 84 on the pre-assessment, and the cut score is a 58. I don't want to be a di*k with him, but he has to uncuff me at least a little bit.

Anyways, back to studying.

I had issues with mine holding me back at first but I proved myself to him after my first exam (WFV1) so he relaxed a bit. For my second course (CLC1) he let me schedule my exam on the second day of studying without meeting the over 80 pretest score or even getting halfway through the material. (I did take the pretest a month prior, before setting up my AAV, and got a 74 without having access to the study material).

I think that once you prove yourself, you won't run into as many issues with your mentor.

BTW, your mentors initials wouldn't happen to be T.M. would it?

Excellent1

Just took and passed 1D0-520 (CIW Web Design Specialist exam).

Thoughts: Very fair exam, use the online resources (PDF book, videos, course reviews) and you'll be fine. I dropped a couple of questions on syntax, but otherwise this was a very straightforward exam. As a note, you can pass this exam by reviewing the study guide--this is included along with the book. It's basically a synopsis of the longer 34 chapters, and gives you most of what you need to know without all the background and fluff.

635 next, looking forward to it.

drew726

man the CCENT exam really is kicking my ass atm. I got till aug 29th to take it but this is as hard as the 70-680 exam.

NOLAJ

Nobylspoon wrote: »

I had issues with mine holding me back at first but I proved myself to him after my first exam (WFV1) so he relaxed a bit. For my second course (CLC1) he let me schedule my exam on the second day of studying without meeting the over 80 pretest score or even getting halfway through the material. (I did take the pretest a month prior, before setting up my AAV, and got a 74 without having access to the study material).

I think that once you prove yourself, you won't run into as many issues with your mentor.

BTW, your mentors initials wouldn't happen to be T.M. would it?

LMAO, how'd you know?

Nobylspoon

NOLAJ wrote: »

LMAO, how'd you know?

So far, several students who have been complaining about their mentor holding them back seem to have that in common...

I considered going to student services to request someone else but he seems to be lightening up with me. I assume he is new unless all mentors have to constantly run things by their supervisor before approving.

I would prefer to have a mentor with a tech background and not one in marriage counseling. Pathetic attempts at psychoanalysis on me during every phone call get old quick. I don't need marriage counseling. I can't even legally get married in 90% of the states, lol.

veritas_libertas

Nobylspoon wrote: »

So far, several students who have been complaining about their mentor holding them back seem to have that in common...

I considered going to student services to request someone else but he seems to be lightening up with me. I assume he is new unless all mentors have to constantly run things by their supervisor before approving.

You're story is similar to many. Once you prove yourself to them, they begin lighten up on you.

Oh, and there is no way I would let them start lecturing me on personal matters. If that keeps up I would contact someone student services, ridiculous...

Jourdsh

Nobylspoon wrote: »

So far, several students who have been complaining about their mentor holding them back seem to have that in common...

I considered going to student services to request someone else but he seems to be lightening up with me. I assume he is new unless all mentors have to constantly run things by their supervisor before approving.

I would prefer to have a mentor with a tech background and not one in marriage counseling. Pathetic attempts at psychoanalysis on me during every phone call get old quick. I don't need marriage counseling. I can't even legally get married in 90% of the states, lol.

I have the same mentor, once I passed Security+ and Network+, he lightened up a bit. Based on some of the things he says and does, I get the feeling he is new as well.

NOLAJ

Funny how this many of us have T.M. as a mentor. He approved me to schedule the WFV1, but wanted me to promise not to schedule until I had some more discussions with the course mentor, who is S.G., but she won't return my emails so I went ahead and scheduled. I gained A+ and Windows 7 certs prior to enrolling at WGU. If I can't pass the WFV1, then something would be terribly wrong.

Is he really a marriage counselor?

Jourdsh

According to his bio. I had to talk to my course mentor to take the security and the network+ tests. It was a less than five minute call. We should join a TM support group.

Nobylspoon

NOLAJ wrote: »

Funny how this many of us have T.M. as a mentor. He approved me to schedule the WFV1, but wanted me to promise not to schedule until I had some more discussions with the course mentor, who is S.G., but she won't return my emails so I went ahead and scheduled. I gained A+ and Windows 7 certs prior to enrolling at WGU. If I can't pass the WFV1, then something would be terribly wrong.

Is he really a marriage counselor?

Yeah, he won't let you schedule anything without talking to the CM first. The WFV1 mentor does take a while to respond. I basically just emailed her saying that I passed the practice exams for all 3 domains to which she replied "Sounds like you're ready, good luck!" That was enough for the mentor to approve my voucher request.

Nobylspoon

Jourdsh wrote: »

According to his bio. I had to talk to my course mentor to take the security and the network+ tests. It was a less than five minute call. We should join a TM support group.

Haha, good idea. "My name is Nobylspoon and it has been about 28 days since TM was assigned to me."

demonfurbie

my mentor just takes a voicemail or a quick email and unlocks/refers anything i want, no questions asked other than prometric or webcam

Jourdsh

Right now I am ok with where I am at. WFV1 and Active Directory study materials are unlocked. BBC1 and BAC1 are scheduled and he didn't give me any push back about the assessments.

If things stay smooth I think it will be ok. Next week after I am done with BBC and BAC, I will see how things go about getting something else assigned.

sheckler

The 2 tasks for intro to programming seem kind of advanced for a beginner. This is going to be annoying.

petedude

sheckler wrote: »

The 2 tasks for intro to programming seem kind of advanced for a beginner. This is going to be annoying.

Ya think?

Worse, look at task 2 carefully. It's actually two programs. As I mentioned to my mentor today (no, he's not TM) it would've been nice if they'd broken those up into two separate tasks-- it would make it easier to gauge progress.

themagicone

petedude wrote: »

Ya think?

Worse, look at task 2 carefully. It's actually two programs. As I mentioned to my mentor today (no, he's not TM) it would've been nice if they'd broken those up into two separate tasks-- it would make it easier to gauge progress.

But, really it isn't two programs. You can use most of the same code, just need to change the read/write method. May be a paragraph of code difference. I used a GUI with mine. Google be your friend with it, the books they recommend in the COS suck and the mentor is useless.

themagicone

I started my tech writing today. I think I got a good idea of what I'm going to write about, now need to wait and see what my mentor thinks. Going to tackle the CCNA again next week then finish up tech writing followed by CCNA Security and then finally the Capstone. WOO! Getting closer! Need to start thinking about masters programs now.

petedude

themagicone wrote: »

But, really it isn't two programs. You can use most of the same code, just need to change the read/write method. May be a paragraph of code difference. I used a GUI with mine. Google be your friend with it, the books they recommend in the COS suck and the mentor is useless.

(emphasis mine)

Yeah, I sure know about the latter. I knew, but had forgotten, that they couldn't even look over the tasks to give ideas before you submit them. All I wanted was a little guidance about one small issue. . . and that's why we now have that huge blurb about "what mentors cannot do" at the top of that board.

I really think they need more of a hard-core programmer type or computer sci professor-type at the helm of that particular section. Even if WGU isn't paying a premium for course mentors, I have to imagine that it shouldn't be THAT hard to find a helpful and tech-passionate mentor for those courses.

Unforg1ven

Sweet friggin news... I'm starting WGU finally August 1st. It has been about a 1 year hiatus from when I backed off starting. Great news is, in that time period, I got my A+ and Sec+ to knock down 3 classes alone. The kicker here is apparently WGU has become MUCH more lenient when it comes to transferring over A.A.S degrees. I was shocked by the amount of classes were met by the degree.

Heck, i was going to get my MCITP. Might as well get my B.S. in the process.



Oh.. and thanks erpadmin for the original refer-a-friend waiver.

hiddenknight821

I just got an email from my mentor for the first time. I'm excited, yet annoyed the moment. My mentor want me to give her a call during one of her given hours next week, which is during the daylight. I realized I can't call her at work, and I won't get home until at least 5pm.

I wish I can call her on my cell during lunch, but I can't since I can't use the phone like everyone else could. I only use a special phone that I only have at home, and I'm waiting for it to be installed at work soon. In case it didn't arrive at work on time, I am afraid I may screw up my progress at WGU.

Aren't mentors suppose to call at night instead since the majority of WGU's students probably have jobs during the daytime? Also, I thought all mentors work in Utah, since I am from the East. She said she can do 3PM, which would work for me if she meant Mountain Time, but she didn't.

Lemonade727

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

I just got an email from my mentor for the first time. I'm excited, yet annoyed the moment. My mentor want me to give her a call during one of her given hours next week, which is during the daylight. I realized I can't call her at work, and I won't get home until at least 5pm.

I wish I can call her on my cell during lunch, but I can't since I can't use the phone like everyone else could. I only use a special phone that I only have at home, and I'm waiting for it to be installed at work soon. In case it didn't arrive at work on time, I am afraid I may screw up my progress at WGU.

Aren't mentors suppose to call at night instead since the majority of WGU's students probably have jobs during the daytime? Also, I thought all mentors work in Utah, since I am from the East. She said she can do 3PM, which would work for me if she meant Mountain Time, but she didn't.

They have mentors scattered all across the nation, mine's on the East coast. If your current mentor does NOT have a time frame available for your weekly call that would work with your schedule, let your mentor know that and she or yourself can get in contact with Student Services to find a mentor who has a schedule available that WILL work for you.

hiddenknight821

Lemonade727 wrote: »

They have mentors scattered all across the nation, mine's on the East coast. If your current mentor does NOT have a time frame available for your weekly call that would work with your schedule, let your mentor know that and she or yourself can get in contact with Student Services to find a mentor who has a schedule available that WILL work for you.

Thanks. I will do that now. I would hate to let this one go since who knows if she's one of the "flexible" mentors we would be fortune to have.

jmasterj206

hiddenknight821 wrote: »

Thanks. I will do that now. I would hate to let this one go since who knows if she's one of the "flexible" mentors we would be fortune to have.

Are the initials J.B.?

hiddenknight821

jmasterj206 wrote: »

Are the initials J.B.?

Haha, nope. It's T.T. By the way, she seemed to be more flexible than I thought before I even try to reply back to her for the first time. I guess it's because of my special case that I explained to her. So she was being very forthcoming and understandable. I'm glad I don't have to go through that hassle now since I can't afford any delay right now.

nethacker

when will i transfer my certifications? Is it before i start my classes or after registration?

demonfurbie

i think its before reg... but it has been quite a while since ive had to do it

NOLAJ

nethacker wrote: »

when will i transfer my certifications? Is it before i start my classes or after registration?

Part of registration is providing prior school transcripts and certifications. You will know everything that transfers before you start any classes.

Nobylspoon

Three day weekend! Going to see if I can't finish up BAC1 with the extra time. I am currently on Unit 5 (Geometry).